RSS as an essential tool for libraries, librarians and library users

[This is a requisite post to fulfill the following class assignment: "In your own words describe what RSS is. Why are so many libraries so ape over RSS?"]

What is RSS?
Alrighty, let's start with the nitty-gritty, basics, shall we? Technically speaking, RSS is a XML format that incorporates metadata that describes Web content. According to Wikipedia, RSS stands for one or more of the following:

1. Really Simple Syndication
2. Rich Site Summary
3. RDF Site Summary

Basically, RSS feeds (and other kinds of Web feeds) deliver Web content in serialized chunks to users. RSS is frequently associated with blogs, but it is also used for all kinds of other content, including podcasts, news, or even just updates and additions to regular Web pages. People commonly subscribe to RSS feeds via a reader or aggregator, which enable them to access content from multiple sources in one place. Bloglines and Google Reader are well-known and popular aggregators. It is now quite easy to subscribe to feeds (look for the little orange icons (often in the browser bar) or an icon that says RSS feeds or perhaps something that says XML). One can also subscribe to RSS feeds using a browser, such as Safari or Firefox, or have RSS feeds go directly to an email client such as Thunderbird. There are oodles of other readers listed at RSS Compendium. RSS feeds can also display on Web sites and blogs or be used to remix content in new ways, as in mashups.

Save the time of the user
The point of all of this is that one no longer needs to go look at a Web site to see if there is new content; instead, the new content is delivered to the user via the RSS feed, all in one convenient place. RSS feeds are great substitutes for enewsletters, reducing clutter in the users' in boxes, and users can subscribe to RSS feeds without registering or creating account, thus not generating any opportunities for spam.

What does RSS have to do with libraries?
Many libraries use RSS feeds to share information with their users about events, news or items added to the collection. Hennepin County Library, for example, creates RSS feeds for library news, items added to over two dozen subject guides, events & classes and booklists. They also make it easy to create a RSS feed for a search in the library catalog. Another fabulous example is the Ann Arbor District Library, which makes available a gazillion RSS feeds on all aspects of library services and collections. Other libraries allow users to create RSS feeds of what they have checked out. In a nutshell, RSS feeds make it easy to push information out to users once they subscribe.

More nifty things libraries, librarians and library users can do with Web feeds

• Add a feed of your del.icio.us bookmarks to your Web site or blog. Better yet, use a del.icio.us account to compile Web resources on a particular subject of interest to your library's users and share those resources with them via a RSS feed.
  
• Stay current on topics of interest by adding RSS feeds to your Google Personalized Home Page
• Bring together content from various Web sites & services into one place using Suprglu.
• Integrate RSS feeds pertaining to particular topics into course Web pages or pages on course management systems (e. g., WebCT).
  
• Encourage users to create their own RSS feeds on a particular topic based on citations store in bibliographic management systems such as RefWorks, per the University of Iowa Libraries.
  
• Use RSS to create current awareness alerts from scholarly journals of new articles published. See the Ebling Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a great example of some of the feeds available from ejournals.
  
• Save a PubMed search as a feed.
  
• If a Web site doesn't have a RSS feed, you can make your own with a handy online tool called Page2RSS.

Finding feeds

• Resource Shelf has published an excellent list of places to find feeds called Serious RSS Fishing Holes.
• Technorati an extremely large and popular directory and search engine for blogs.
• U. S. Government RSS Library links to RSS feeds from a wide variety of Federal Web sites on topics including health, medicine, education, employment, science, business, economics, etc.
• LisZen provides a search engine to over 600 library and information science blogs.
• LibWorm also provides a search engine for library and librarian blogs. It aggregates over 1500 feeds. One can also create a new, custom RSS feed based on a search or use LibWorm itself as a blog reader.
  

For more information regarding RSS

• The Evolution of RSS by Andrew King includes the history of RSS and lots of information about the technical stuff.
• Hot, Fresh, Delivered to You! a fabulous online tutorial by Luke Rosenberger, North Harris Montgomery Community College District
• Using RSS to increase user awareness of e-resources in academic libraries by Jay Bhatt.
• RSS(sm): Rich Site Services by Gerry McKiernan from the Iowa State University Library is a directory of libraries that provide information and services via Web feeds.
  
• Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries by Jack M. Maness (Webology, 3(2), June, 2006). Nice overview of Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 technologies.